Jun 17, 2012

G4's Top 100 Video Games Review

G4TV is a video game and technology channel. Who am I kidding, I'm too good to spread misinformation. G4TV is a channel that shows movies and Cops reruns with an occasional original show, and once a year they show E3 coverage. I was surprised when I saw commercials during their E3 coverage that they were going to do a top-100 list for video games. DVR set to record!

The format for G4's Top 100 Video Games of All Time is very much like any top 100 shows on VH1. You get a bunch of B-list and C-list celebs, and game developers. Then you have them all talk about video games. There were some weird moments in this countdown list that seemed like stock footage and generic soundbites for the celebrities. Basically, when they cut to a random interview with some people, you weren't really sure if that was their opinion of the game being shown. There was one case where they cut to Mathew Perry, and he said something along the lines of, "Oh yeah, that game was great!" I'm not sure if he was talking about a different game, and G4 just needed to fill in some time for this one game.

That complaint might sound like I disliked this show, but these interviews where also awesome. Every time I saw JB Smoove (Curb Your Enthusiasm) I was dying laughing. There was also a ton of people from inside the game industry interviewed that described how a certain game had inspired them. I always enjoy seeing what people in the industry have to say about games that they didn't create.

In a top 100 list you have to keep an open mind to different people's opinions. I knew that going in, and I tried to not let these different opinions bother me. There were times however I was in a frenzy over one game's placement beating another's placement in the list. This wasn't my usual reaction; I mostly agreed with things.

Final Say: For people that love games, you need to check out G4's Top 100 Games list. I enjoyed the interviews with industry-people and different celebs more than the actual list. I learned a ton from watching these five 1 hour episodes. Keep an eye out for when G4 replays these episodes!